Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.

Saturday, 24 December 2011

Israel, which has robbed its Palestinian victims blind since 1947, has another demand to make. It wants them to recognise it as a “Jewish state”. Palestinians should mock this entity’s leaders all the way back to Vienna, where Theodore Herzl’s Zionist delusions were born.

Israel Not A Jewish State
Judaism teaches that the right for the Jewish people to have self rule in the Holy Land is not unconditional. Since the destruction of Holy Temple over two thousand years ago, the Jewish people have been exiled from this land by Divine decree. The Talmud tells that God obligated us not to rebel against the ruling bodies, and not to take the land of Israel by force (see Babylonian Talmud tractate Kesubos 111A).You see, the secret is out: It now appears that those people who call themselves Israeli Jews are not Jews after all, but the descendants of Eastern European converts to Judaism, who had no genealogical connection to the ancient Israelites.

The aggression that Zionism presents in originally taking the Holy Land by force from its indigenous inhabitants is the first flag that exposes this movement for what it is — a real deviation from Judaism.

Judaism forbids Jews from taking the land away from those who currently have jurisdiction over it. That such things should be done not only in opposition to Judaism, but in the name of the very Judaism it defies is simply large-scale fraud. Zionism, once exposed, proves to be the greatest enemy, the worst nightmare, to the Jewish religion and it’s practitioners, that exists to date. Zionism, strikes out regularly at Jews who remain true to Torah and its precepts. There are many Jews who protest against the very existence of the State of Israel, and who are quite vocal, albeit peaceful, about their opposition. Whenever Zionist policies or activities run counter to the Torah stance, Torah-true Jews come forward to unmask the Zionism.

Many believe that the second worst thing that ever happened to Jews was the establishment of state of Israel.

Liberation of Palestine

The population in Palestine was 600,000 people of which 10% were Jewish, 90% were Palestinian Muslims and Christians and 99% of the land was owned by Palestinians.

Most Palestinians believe that:

* The only real road to Peace is the full and unconditional Liberation of the whole of Palestine, liberation from the supremacist ideology and liberation from the perpetrators. That will inevitably mean a return to the original, peaceful society Palestine was before the Zionist invasion. The true and sincere aspirations of Palestinians are long lasting Peace, Justice and Freedom . We believe that this will restore the true foundations of the Palestinian society.

* Palestinians are always grateful and appreciative of the hard work and dedication of all their supporters whomever they are, however, Palestinians have NO obligation to hold back their march for freedom, to curtail their aims or to smother their rights for the sake of accommodating and not offending their "Jewish supporters" or to adopt the aims and objectives of the "anti-zionist Jewish supporters" instead of their own.

* Palestinians have the ultimate right to aim for the full Liberation of their occupied Homeland, and to that effect select strategy and tactics of Resistance most suitable to achieve the reinstatement of their inalienable rights.

* Palestinians have the ultimate right to choose their vision for their future, of FREE Palestine including the type of government, the writing of constitution, the construction and implementation of their legal and judicial system, which stems from and corresponds to their ethics and reflects and protects their culture.

* All refugee and their descendents have the unconditional right to come back home, they, the rightful indigenous owners are also entitled to the reinstatement of ALL confiscated (stolen) land and property, compensation for all their losses over the many years of exile and they are also entitled to Palestinian citizenship wherever they are.

* The aims and dreams of most Palestinians are not confined to the change of zionist regime or the vacuous declaration of abandonment of zionism by the Jewish-zionist occupiers, but rather to the FULL Liberation of Palestine and the restoration of all their rights.

More than 100 countries have so far officially recognized Palestine as a state based on the 1967 borders, the boundaries that existed before the Israeli regime captured East al-Quds (Jerusalem), the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

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“Lebanon has been a member state of the United Nations since 1945 and yet this did not prevent Israel from occupying southern Lebanon from 1978 until 2000. Israel’s occupation of Lebanon ended not because of any international pressure, but only because the Lebanese resistance drove Israel and its collaborating militias out“

River toSeaUprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

BY ROBIN MILLS|DECEMBER 23, 2011

As the country that gave the world chess, it is only appropriate that Iran's current sanctions standoff with the United States resembles a game between two inept players. Tehran repeatedly makes bad moves; Washington plays better but has no path to checkmate.

Events this week gave encouragement that steadily tightening Western oil sanctions on Iran, imposed over its alleged nuclear weapons program, were having an effect.

Britain and France are working on a European Union-wide ban on importing oil from Iran, while an amendment to the 2012 U.S. defense authorization bill would try to close down transactions with Iran's Central Bank. China's leading refiner, Sinopec, halved its January purchases of Iranian crude on a dispute over credit terms, while Saudi supplies surged by a third. This is exactly the intention of the amendment: to narrow the circle of Iran's customers to China and a few others, giving them the ability to extract discounts and thus starving the Islamic Republic of revenue.

This follows the stunning effectiveness of sanctions on Syria, where oil exports have fallen almost to nothing, and Shell, Total and other Western operators have withdrawn. (Of course, this has not stopped the killing, and Syria is but a bit player in global oil markets.)

Iran's response was surprisingly panic-stricken. It's hardly as if the tightening of sanctions has come as a surprise -- they have been in the works for months, and the Islamic Republic has lived under some kind of oil sanctions ever since its birth 30 years ago.

One sign of panic is Iran's escalating rhetoric about the energy reserves it shares with its neighbors. In November, Iran oil minister Rostam Ghassemi, a Sepah (Revolutionary Guards) commander, announced that development of the "shared fields" would be accelerated. Then, on Dec. 22, the spokesman for the majlis's energy committee, Emad Hosseini, said that Arab countries were cooperating to steal oil and gas from fields that cross into Iranian territory. He specifically accused Qatar, with whom Iran shares the world's largest gas field, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Iraq's coveted Block 9 on the Iranian frontier, to be auctioned in March, is another spot to watch, after Iran occupied a border oil well in 2009. The issue of the shared fields has surfaced episodically for years, but highlighting it now in inflammatory terms puts pressure on Iran's Arab neighbors.
On the same day as Hosseini's comments, a Revolutionary Guards admiral announced a war game in the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 40 percent of international oil trade passes. Blocking Hormuz is widely seen as a possible Iranian response to further sanctions or military attacks -- but in practice the United States could probably quickly reopen the waterway, and would be supported by Europe, India, China and every other major oil importer. (It's also worth noting that virtually all of Iran's own exports go through the strait.)

On Dec. 20, semi-official news agency Mehr News announced that Iran had blocked imports from the UAE, with which it did $15 billion in trade in 2011, to punish it for supporting U.S. sanctions. The Iranian foreign minister quickly backed away from this suggestion, but the damage was done: The Iranian riyal plunged by 10 percent against the dollar as traders hurried to offload the currency, and has now lost half its value in the past few months.

The declining riyal is also part of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policy to help fill the government's budget deficit ahead of parliamentary elections in 2012. This comes at the cost of worsening inflation, already boosted by the removal of fuel and electricity subsidies in late 2010 (officially 19 percent, but unofficial estimates put it as high as 28 percent).

River toSeaUprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight

While carving the turkey for your family and merrily quaffing mulled wine ‘midst happy laughter, remember that the romantic Little Town of Bethlehem at the centre of our childhood Christmases is now “an immense prison” in the words of Michel Sabbah, former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and entirely surrounded by Israel’s ugly 8-metre separation wall bristling with machine-gun towers.

The good citizens of Bethlehem are cut off from their capital Jerusalem, only six miles away, the rest of the West Bank and the whole world.

Consider that the United Nations, for obvious reasons, designated Jerusalem and Bethlehem a protected international zone under UN administration. Israeli rule was not to be permitted.

Consider also that when Palestine was under British mandate Christians accounted for 20 per cent of the population and how 63 years of terror, illegal occupation, dispossession, interference and economic wrecking tactics have whittled their numbers down to less than 2 per cent.

Consider that, at this rate, there will soon be no Christians left in the land where Christianity was born… thanks to the cowardice and inaction of our political leaders.

How will the 26 bishops sitting around in our House of Lords, doing no
thing, explain that to their dwindling congregations?

As usual, many Palestinians in Bethlehem and the other cities and villages throughout occupied Palestine will be unable to reunite with their families or celebrate Christmas at their holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem due to cruel Israeli-imposed travel restrictions. Imagine for a moment what sort of Christmas the half-starved children in blockaded Gaza are having this year, and every year… and what New Year prospects face all the other Palestinian children struggling to grow up with the Israeli army’s boot on their necks.

Deep down it is not about religion at all. The struggle is between justice and a criminal conspiracy of huge international proportions, the tentacles of which spread far beyond the Holy Land and impact on all of us, even here in the deepest recesses of England’s green and pleasant land.

In the New Year civil society must resolve to DO SOMETHING about it, one way or another, before the evil spins irreversibly out of control.

- Stuart Littlewood's book Radio Free Palestine can now be read on the internet by visiting www.radiofreepalestine.org.uk. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

River toSeaUprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Egyptian protesters hold a giant Egyptian flag as they gather in Cairo's Tahrir
Square during a mass rally against the country's military rulers o
n 23 December 2011.
(Photo: AFP - Filippo Monteforte)

SCAF’s unrelenting and violent crackdown on protesters over the past few weeks failed to stop hundreds of thousands of Egyptians – including those who support the de facto military rulers – from taking to the streets Friday.

Cairo - Tahrir Square once again became an epicenter of street action, with hundreds of thousands taking to downtown Cairo Friday. Protesters here referred to the day as the “Friday of Restoring Honor,” while participants chanted slogans in defense of Egyptian women’s dignity.

“Egyptian women won’t be stripped” cried male and female protesters of all walks of life. Their call was in response to the military’s violence against women protesters calling for the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to hand over power to a civilian government.

“Because the photo was published, we all saw what the soldiers did to the girl they stripped and dragged,” said Tahrir Square protester Alaa Abdel Rahman, in reference to a photo of such an incident that has stirred public opinion for days. “But I was here throughout recent days, when we suffered extreme violence. And I can guarantee that she was not the only victim. I saw many young girls being stripped and beaten, among them a field doctor.”

Downtown Cairo saw five nights of excessive violence against protesters last week. Starting at dawn on Friday December 16, a total of five different night raids saw military police, the army and the widely despised Central Security Forces attack protesters demanding SCAF hand over power.
A total of 17 protesters were killed and almost 2,000 injured in the latest round of violence in Cairo, according to the Martyrs and Injured Committee run by volunteer field doctors. Weapons used against protesters have included live ammunition, rubber bullets, electric batons, stones launched from the top of government buildings and tear gas.

The violence began in a drive to break up a three week long sit-in at the gates of the Egyptian Cabinet building in a sidestreet in downtown Cairo. While the sit-in was peaceful, protesters resorted to street resistance tactics, responding to the military and Central Security Forces’ violence with stones and Molotov cocktails.

Protesters streaming into Tahrir Square through Friday also made calls for an end to violence. “We rose up against violence during the January 25 revolution. Our collective suffering of violence at the hands of the former regime’s security forces was one of the main reasons why we all decided we had to do whatever it took to oust Mubarak,” said engineer Hakem Bassiouni.

“Things have not changed, rather they have become worse. The army is attacking not only the protesters, but also the very principles of the revolution. People taking part in the Cabinet sit-in were there to defend the revolution,” added protester Bassiouni. “However, SCAF has done nothing to fulfil the people’s goals.”

One of the key popular demands uniting Egyptians against former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime was “Bread, Freedom and Social Justice.” In the view of Tahrir Square protesters Bassiouni and Abdel Rahman, none of these goals have yet been achieved.

“People taking part in the protests through the past week, when the army was shooting directly into the crowd, were mainly poor people who had nothing under Mubarak, and still have nothing today,” said Abdel Rahman. “SCAF has done nothing to help the Egyptians.”

One of the most unpopular facets of Mubarak’s regime was its political and trade relations with Israel. “Has SCAF stopped exporting gas to Israel? No it hasn’t,” said Abdel Rahman. “Meanwhile, poor Egyptians have suffered a shortage of butane gas for the house. This is unjust. That’s why we’re here.”
At the same time, a far smaller but no less emotionally charged demonstration on Abbasiya Square saw tens of thousands gather in SCAF’s defense. At first sight, there were ironic similarities with the Tahrir protest, including the presence of a plethora of street vendors, Egyptian flags, music and families with children.

But the two protests’ messages were radically different. In Abbasiya, crowds chanted “the people and the army are one hand.” Chants also accused presidential hopefuls Mohammed El-Baradei and Amr Hamzawy of being “traitors,” while members of the April 6 movement were described as “collaborators.”

Holding up a poster describing independent Egyptian media outlets such as CBC and ON TV as “collaborators,” 43-year-old Gamal (who withheld his surname) said he had visited Tahrir Square and had only seen leftists with a foreign agenda there.

“As for incidents of violence against young girls, we have to admit that the army has made mistakes,” said Gamal. “But one has to wonder, what were they doing there?” The SCAF supporter also referred to the case of Alia Mahdi, who published a nude photograph of herself on her blog in November, in an act of protest against military rule.

“We have our customs and traditions in Egypt,” said Gamal. “You can’t do that kind of thing and not expect consequences.”

In a protest guarded by small numbers of military personnel, SCAF supporters raised their voices against foreign intervention in domestic affairs. One poster hanging down from the bridge above the square pictured US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

A man standing on the bridge took off his shoe and hit the image repeatedly, while scores of onlookers down on the square cheered him on. “Focus on the Monica Lewinsky scandal,” read the caption, in response to Clinton’s statement earlier this week denouncing violence against Egyptian women protesters.

Back in Tahrir, young protester Ahmed Taha believed Egyptians’ mistrust of foreign intervention was shared among all protesters out on the streets Friday. “The US can say whatever it likes about our revolution,” said Taha. “Starting January 25, the Egyptians have started to shape our own political destiny. I believe SCAF’s resorting to anti-Western discourse is just a tactic to rally support in its favor.”

Over the past week, in the midst of violent attacks against protesters calling for the end of military rule, state-run media escalated an information campaign warning of foreign intervention in Egypt. Articles and television reports blamed leftist groups and foreigners in Egypt of attempts to bring down the Egyptian state.

The campaign had Abbasiya protester Gamal convinced, while ON TV reported its team had to leave that demonstration because it had suffered violence at the hands of protesters. “I agree that everyone has the right to protest,” said Gamal. “But we need to think of the future of the state.”

Gamal went on to say that although he supported SCAF for now, he also wanted them out of politics as soon as possible. “If they don’t leave power by June 2012, which is when they have promised to hand over power to an elected president, I too will go down to Tahrir,” he said.

River toSeaUprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Following a visit by AL Chief Nabil al-Arabi to Baghdad, "Iraq pledged to convince Syria with the initiative proposed by the Arab League, “We have talked about Syria and we demanded interference from Iraq which has a good relation with Syria” AL chief said "The Iraqi government has told us that it will hold talks with the Syrian government to find a solution for this issue”, added al-Arabi

But Obama, and Maliki don’t have the same view concerning the situation in Syria. During a news conference in the White House maliki told Obama "I do not have the right to ask a president to abdicate. We cannot give ourselves this right"

﻿﻿"When I arrive in Baghdad, I will hold a meeting to prepare the plans to send a delegation to Syria in order to implement the Iraqi initiative," Maliki told AFP as he flew back to Iraq from Washington.

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Two terrorist attacks on Friday targeted State Security Directorate and another Security Branch in Damascus, causing many military and civilian deaths and the majority were civilians.Preliminary investigations indicated that that the criminal attack carries the blueprints of al-Qaeda. The two attacks, according to the investigations, were carried out by two suicide bombers with two booby-trapped cars. Delegation of the Arab League's monitors visited the site of the two terrorist attacks.

In a statement, the Ministry of Interior said that a terrorist suicide bomber in a booby-trapped car broke into the main door of the Area Security Branch in Damascus at 10:18 AM, leading to the martyring of security forces personnel and civilian passersby in addition to causing significant material damage to nearby buildings.The statement said that one minute later, another suicide bomber drove a booby-trapped GMC 4WD car into the General Intelligence Administration building, also leading to the martyring of security forces personnel and civilian passersby and causing significant material damage.

The Ministry said that death toll of the two terrorist suicide combings so far have reached 44, in addition to 166 wounded people, stressing that the modus operandi of the attacks and the selection of targeted areas (both of which are crowded in order to kill the biggest number of civilians possible) have the fingerprints of al-Qaeda all over them, marking an escalation in the terrorist attacks afflicting Syria at the hands of armed terrorist Takfiri groups for more than nine months.The statement said that these terrorist attacks reveal the true face of the plot targeting Syria and its security and stability at the hands of terrorist tools inside and abroad.The Ministry called on citizens to do their part and cooperate with the authorities by reporting any suspicious incident in order to put an end to terrorism and crimes and protect the safety of the country and citizens.

Child Martyred, Teacher Injured in al-Aman Orphanage as Result of Terrorist Attacks

Director of al-Aman Orphanage Hanadi Qawwas said one of the children from the orphanage was martyred and a teacher was severely injured in the terrorist attack on the nearby General Intelligence Administration building.She pointed out that fate averted a massacre at the orphanage where 150 children live and 60 students work, saying that the explosion occurred when most of the children were off visiting relatives, and that the building and its equipment were severely damaged."Those who committed this cowardly terrorist act have no religion and aren't remotely related to morals and humanity," she said.The explosion also caused material damage to al-Wehda Journalism and Publishing establishment. The headquarters of the Syrian Arab Television also sustained damaged to its side which faces the Area Security Branch.

Martyrs of Terrorist Attacks to Be Escorted to Final Resting Place from Umayyad Mosque on Saturday in Official and Popular ProcessionT

he martyrs who fell victim to the two terrorist attacks will be escorted from the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus to their final resting place on Saturday after the noon prayers. <>

R. Raslan/ al-Ibrahim / H. SabbaghRiver toSeaUprooted PalestinianThe views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!